The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-07-16
NATURAL MONUMENTS.
Wild and Impressive Scenes in the Mount
aims of West Virginia.

wild and Impressive Scenes in the Mount
aims of West Virginia.
Up here among the highest attitudes
OF West Virginia, on top of the anti
clinal ridges, $500 feet above the level
OF the sea, among the conglomerate
series, stand a number of stupendous
monuments or monoliths whose pecu.
liar features, preserved by their silici-
Gus character from the leveling power
OF atmospheric agencies, degradation
by water and erosion of time, to all ap-
pearances sound and perfect as when
IN the carboniferous age the lands were
cast up in lateral folds. These impress
sive monuments are in some cases $50
feet high by several hundred in width;
their crowns are generally somewhat
concave in shape, the outer rim of the
bowl being in some instances several
feet higher than its center The most
peculiar feature, and one which has
been gazed upon by visitors with awe,
and is regarded by the native with that
degree of reverence only found among
rural Christian people, is the fact that
In the center of each stone is a hole,
varying in size, but perfectly smooth
and regular in all. In one instance,
which will describe all, the hole at the
surface is two feet in diameter, de-
scending into the hard stone several
feet, with a regularity of size which
could not be made more perfect with
modern ingenuity and instruments.
Below the space begins to broaden into
an ovoid shape until it has assumed
the shape and form of the interior of a
long-necked bottle or that of a perfect
cone with long stem. At the bottom,
many feet below the mouth,
lies a round stone of great
density. surrounded and often
covered with very fine sand, which
partakes of the nature of the rocky
walls about it. The belief and theory
of the natives and those visitors who
have gone many miles through these
almost painless wilds to see them is
that when this part of the world was
covered with water, many centuries
past, large rocks or stones of great
density had been carried by the flood
and deposited upon these stones, whose
concave crowns having created sort
of whirlpool by the resistance of the
outer walls or rims, sent the denser
rocks in whirl and constant grind
until they had worn themselves down
Into the bosom of the larger stones.
AS the depth increased correspond
ing resistance ensued, causing the re-
volving stones, by their increasing
velocity, to grind further into the sides
of the walls, until they had worn them
into the shape above described
Measurements were made by several
visitors short time ago and the shape
of each cavity was exactly the same in
form, only differing in size in proper
ton to the round dense stone lying at
the bottom. In all instances the neck
of the ovoid-shaped hole was the merest
trifle larger in diameter than the round
stone. Several efforts were made to
get one of the round stones out of its
resting place and to the surface, but
the attempts always failed.
These monuments of the birth of ma
ture stand almost three thousand feet
above the level of the lands of Ohio
bordering on the river of that name
PocahontdS (W Va.) Cor. NJ Y. World.